Another CES has passed, and with it comes clearer understanding of what's on the tech product horizon in the coming year. If I were to sum it up in a simple list? Touchscreens, 4K, and washing machines.

And that's the reason I stand by the proposition that this year's show wasn't very good. But, let's save that for the end. CES is still the most important tech show in the world, it's still massive, and there's still a metric crapton of stuff unveiled at it every year. So, in the Android realm, what was noteworthy this time around?

And if you want the full scoop, hit up this link, where you'll find all of our CES 2012 coverage, page by page. I'm just going to give you my highlights here.

The Best

My Favorite: NVIDIA's Shield

Listen, you can say Shield's going to fail because it'll be too expensive. You can say people don't want a handheld gaming console that doesn't fit in your pocket. And you can say NVIDIA arbitrarily makes games incompatible by using proprietary code for enhanced visuals, which fragments the Android platform. And maybe, on all three counts, you'd at least have a leg to stand on.

But that doesn't change for a moment the fact that Shield was the most important product at this year's CES, hands down. Sony could have unveiled an 84" OLED 4K TV that makes pizza and does your laundry, and Shield still would have been more important. In a show full of incremental improvements, single-spec hypebeasting (COUGH 4K COUGH), gimmicks, and downright lame press conferences (looking at you, Samsung and LG), Shield was a beacon of hope.

I'm not saying it's going to turn the world upside-down. I'm not saying it won't be overpriced. And I'm not saying that every little detail will be perfect by the time it ships. But Shield represents the first serious effort to make mobile gaming a serious industry. Nothing - and I mean nothing - has come into this space so boldly, and made the case so convincingly that a premium mobile gaming experience should exist. Ouya, frankly, relies on a value proposition, and it's one that simply doesn't target the gamer demographic - it's far more casual. NVIDIA has put its chips down and said "we want to make a mobile gaming console for gamers."

It could be an unprecedented success. It could be a miserable failure. We don't know yet. But what we do know is that NVIDIA will try to make it work, and NVIDIA has the financial footing to lose money, making Shield visible in the marketplace before it turns the corner to profitability - something few Kickstarter projects can say.

Honorable Mention: YotaPhone

OK, I admit - the idea of an e-ink screen on the back of a phone sounds really, really gimmicky at first blush. But the possibilities something like this allows for are just way too easy to geek out on. I desperately want to see other manufacturers take something away from this idea, because the YotaPhone is an exceptional oddity in an increasingly bland hardware ecosystem. Check out our coverage of it for more on why I think this strange little Russian phone is important.

The Worst

My Favorite (... To Dislike): Polaroid iM1836 Android Camera

Oh god, Polaroid. Why? I mean, really, there is so much wrong with the iM836 that I honestly wonder what kind of la-la land Polaroid's management lives in to think this is a good idea. OK, let me clarify that a little - why this product in particular is a good idea. Because it's not - it's terrible. The concept, I guess, has at least some potential merit. But Polaroid saw fit to ruin it.

Let's start with the lesser of the horrible flaws. The UI is super slow. The build quality feels like some cheap point and shoot you'd get for a hundred bucks at Target (the iM1836 costs $400). When we tried it, we couldn't even get the camera app to work. All of these things add up to a ghastly user experience. But there's one flaw that outweighs all of these. A flaw so egregious that I can scarcely understand the backward-ass logic Polaroid tries to explain it with.

Look at the picture. Notice anything... odd? Like how there's no sensor in the body of the camera - just a black plastic square that kinda-sorta looks like one? And how on the lens there isn't actually glass at the base, just a mirror finish piece of metal that looks glassy? That's because Polaroid put the image sensor inside the lens. So apart from portability, there is no reason for this camera's lens to be removable in the first place. And what exactly is the point of interchangeable lenses if you can't, you know, interchange to a different lens? You might be able to eventually, when Polaroid makes some, but that means you'll not only be buying a Polaroid lens (because it basically has to be), you'll be buying one with a sensor inside of it. So you'll have a camera body, two lenses, and two sensors. WHY?

Polaroid's explanation is that, because consumers are lazy - alright, I'm with them so far - they'll leave the camera body exposed and the sensor will get dirty or damaged, and their photos will be ruined. Right. Because the tradeoffs here are in no way vastly more impractical and quite simply stupid than any supposed benefits in the form of easy care. Trust me, Polaroid - a dirty sensor is going to be the last worry for anyone that owns one of these travesties.

Dishonorable Mention: RCA's 8" Mobile TV Tablet

RCA isn't exactly a company people in the US really, you know, respect these days. In fact, RCA doesn't even make most of its TVs anymore. So when I heard the company was planning to market an Android tablet with a TV antenna and sell it in the US, my curiosity was mostly related to just how bad it was going to be. The answer? Pretty bad. It could be worse, sure, but man, I honestly feel bad for the guys at the RCA booth who had to vouch for this thing.

It has one, simple job: deliver live TV over the air. And it does this by means of a fairly ugly app that looks like it was designed for a phone. And that app just kind of stops working should you decide to do multitasking of any kind, and you have to restart it to get the connection back. The app then takes a solid 30 seconds to acquire a Dyle TV signal, and the picture quality is just terrible. It doesn't catch HDTV signal over the air, and the build quality of the whole thing is kind of depressing. The viewing angles on the display are among the worst I've ever seen on any tablet this side of China. And it costs $300 for this... privilege.

The Meh

Sony's Xperia Z / ZL

I love how Sony's phones look. I don't love how they perform, or how they look once the screen is on. Sony showed off two powerful new handsets at CES, the Xperia Z and ZL, with new 13MP cameras, and one of them (the Z) is even waterproof. And I can't bring myself to care. As much as I harp on Samsung for being so obsessed with gimmicks, I think what Sony does is worse: they play it too safe. Too conservative. There is no feeling of tech-lust when I pick up a Sony phone - it's just another pretty slab that runs Android. Maybe the Z and ZL will resonate with the average consumer more - who knows.

For me, they're just not exciting. And in regard to the Z, having to pry open a port cover every time I want to charge up or plug in my headphones just sounds annoying. I'll take my chances in the wet, dusty world, Sony. The Z and ZL are far from being bad (I'm sure they're very good, actually), but in a fickle market dominated by Apple and Samsung, this just doesn't seem like the breakout hardware Sony needed to get into the smartphone game in a big way. What did they need? To be different. And they just aren't.

Wrap-Up

While I will go on record as saying that this CES was probably one of the most boring ever, it certainly wasn't a total waste. NVIDIA's Shield showed us something genuinely new and cool, and things like YotaPhone provided much-needed respite from the 4K-washing-machine-with-a-touchscreen fever that seemed to envelop the place. We got to see cool stuff, bad stuff, and genuinely weird stuff.

Will we be back next year? Probably. We might do things a little differently, though, given the growing scarcity of truly interesting product announcements that happen at CES. But more and more companies are leaving CES for dedicated trade shows (like MWC and IFA), or for their own product unveilings. Think about this: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon - none were at CES this year. Can you think of any companies more important in the tech space?

CES has largely become a place where vendors interact with other vendors, manufacturers interact with manufacturers, and competitors scour the show floor for acquisition opportunities and generally eyeball the competition. And iPhone cases. iPhone cases as far as the eye can see. For a show that purports to be focused on consumer electronics, an area that is increasingly synonymous with "mobile technology," CES is straying from relevance.

Consumers don't care so much about what's new in TV's, or washing machine, or refrigerators anymore - we live in an age where these products generally do what we want them to. They have reached a point where the innovations are no longer revolutionary, but evolutionary (or gimmicky). Even personal computing is starting to settle into a comfortable cycle of faster, thinner, and lighter. Say what you will, but no normal consumer gets excited about how many nanometers Intel is fitting a semiconductor on this year.

People do get excited about what something in their pocket can do. How it can change the way they live their lives every day - how a new form factor can alter the way we experience the digital world. I heard often enough that "mobile isn't everything" during CES, but the truly geeky, nerdy part of me feels deep down that mobile is everything, because it's the leaping off point for whatever's next, five, ten, or twenty years from now.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope you enjoyed Android Police's coverage of the 2013 CES - and don't worry - we'll be back at the end of February with live coverage from MWC.

David's phone is whatever is currently sitting on his desk. He is an avid writer, and enjoys playing devil's advocate in editorials, and reviewing the latest phones and gadgets. He also doesn't usually write such boring sentences.

Comments

Mohammed Sacha

i signed up just to say that you are getting really annoying now, annoying to the point where I may not visit this site anymore

Tom Carrio

Couldn't agree with you more. Port covers on a WATERPROOF phone makes it "meh"? I don't see how a company could make a WATERPROOF phone without covering the ports, jackass. Not to mention they made two versions of the phone so in case you don't want the port-covers then you can get that one. They're effectively the same phone anyways, just not waterproof.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ Artem Russakovskii

Yeah, I definitely disagree with that part of the Z/ZL assessment in the article. The rest of it is pretty spot-on though.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ David Ruddock

No one told Sony they had to make their flagship phone waterproof. That's like saying it's stupid to complain about wind noise if Ford made the Mustang GT available only as a convertible in your market. It doesn't suddenly make the initial decision to force that particular feature on buyers right, nor does it mean that feature's benefits automatically outweigh the drawbacks. You think both the Z and ZL will be offered in the US? Almost definitely not.

The Z and ZL will not be offered in all markets. Sony specifically stated this. The ZL will go to some, the Z will go to others, some countries may see overlap, and likely many will not. Maybe I should have made that clearer, but defending the waterproof feature simply because it provides a benefit and there's no other way to provide that benefit is ludicrous.

The Z and ZL's only difference is not waterproofing - the ZL is made entirely of plastic, while the Z has a much sturdier (and much more attractive) glass back. The Z's waterproof coating gets fingerprints on it very quickly (yet another drawback of waterproofing). The Z is not some special "lifestyle" phone - this is the device Sony's going to be using in commercials and stuffing in the hand of every Sony Pictures movie star, and advertising the world over.

chandradithya

"That's like saying it's stupid to complain about wind noise if Ford made the Mustang GT available only as a convertible in your market."

This.

http://twitter.com/Telanis_ Telanis

Are the caps completely removable? If so you could just not put them back on....

Jason Palaszewski

I completely disagree with your statements about the Z and ZL. I think you may have lost your mind, but I'm an engineering PhD student, and those phones are some of the best designs I've seen in years. Maybe you just don't appreciate properly excellent engineering. Also, you appear to be completely missing the point that ALL of Android's potential lies in custom firmware. Sony has been known in very recent times to be very developer-friendly, and combining a CM10.1 ROM with the ZL makes me cry in happiness. You're starting to truly miss the point about some of these devices, and, my friends at AP, goodbye. Un-RSS'd, unsubscribed, unyoutubed. Done, goodbye.

Luke Street

How are they good designs? They're slabs. Look at the Lumia 900 or HTC DNA if you want to see good design. And why pull the "I'm an engineering PhD student" card as if that makes you any more qualified to make such an assessment? People have opinions. Get over yourself.

Like I said before, putting tabs over the charging and earphone ports hinders the device's usefulness. Doesn't sound like your phd gave you much clarity on "good design" to me.

Alex

Why did so many people get butthurt?

chandradithya

My same thoughts.
These kind of bold reviews only makes me come back to the site for more posts.
And the writers IMHO have neutral opinions about each products. They're not fanboys of any particular product, Even Android.

http://www.facebook.com/AqoO.4Ever Kool Shah

David's phone is an HTC One X+. He is an avid fucktard, who enjoys imparting a fucktard opinion of Sony Z and ZL just because he doesn't find it techy and simply doesn't like simple things from sony. . He also doesn't usually write such boring fucktard onions of devices. and he enjoys removing opinions of others who do not like his opinions. but he want his opinion to be heard.

primalxconvoy

I've got a Sony hifi, psp, TWO ps3s, two ps2s and 3 Sony ps3 controllers and a Sony dumbphone. I still wholeheartedly agree with this article. Sony is infamous for having so much potential and a wealth of hardware and media at its fingertips, yet always seems to drop the ball. They should be investing heavily in phones that have strong uses, such as a phablet based experia play (in both wifi and 3 or 4g flavours), improving their awful psn store, moving away from proprietary devices and solutions.

I saw my friend's experia phone yesterday and wasn't impressed with the fact that the earphone and charging ports were covered up, making more problems for easy access, which actually limited the usefulness of the device.

Sony just don't understand the 21st century.

http://www.facebook.com/AqoO.4Ever Kool Shah

if you don't like it than 1: don't buy it... 2: u can remove them by pulling them out from the device itself. there you go. also majority of the people don't give a F... as this guy being the post write he has to include neutral comment for both type of people who like and don't like. not just be one sided. that is why i am pissed off.

primalxconvoy

I'm sorry, come again?

Cherokee4Life

Let me start out with, I love Android Police. I love the reviews they give and their pretty much unbiased opinion. That being said I feel like they didn't cover a lot of stuff. I was looking on another site (who is completely bias which is why i don't like them) and they had 10 times the amount of coverage on CES. Even if it was little stuff or stupid stuff it was so much more. If I only went to Android Police, I would have felt like CES didn't have anyone show up at all. I understand its CES but I just feel like there was a lot more Android news at CES than was covered here.

But editors and writers of AP, I love you work. Keep it up.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ Artem Russakovskii

My opinion of the Sony Experia Z is probably a bit more positive than David's, but I have long lost the ability to tell Sony phones apart. They all look exactly the same to me, with minor differences not just between models but even generations.

I think the Z is pretty, and the Xperia contribution to AOSP is admirable, but it's been a long time since I've been excited about a Sony phone. Or tablet.

Samsung, on the other hand - genuine excitement. HTC? Somewhere between Sony and Samsung. I think I'm more excited about Oppo, Huawei, ZTE, and Xiaomi nowadays than Sony, and that makes me sad.

Muhammad Zohaib Rizwani

Okay ... So Basically your problem is the software right? you want to have things like s voice (app for that and google now too) pop up play? (app for that too) I'm sure that there are apps out there for the rest of the features that samsung touts am I right? as for the skin well its android different launcher and a different skin problem solved no?

Thing is look at the sony ui basically its just a launcher with some specific apps (Try the walkman app and album it pretty much gives any music or gallery app a run for its money) that are sony made the rest of it is pure android on the back isn't it?
Don't you want that ?

What if i told you from the rumors I've heard from sources inside sony that all of that which was on a Sony framework would be shifted onto android end result you ask, well android 5.0 comes out with in a month oh here's your update for your Sony phones android 5.0 .
Well that is the plan and honeslty tell me would you not love it? Probably the only thing that is stopping them right now is well basically you could pick off stuff from sony cellphones and just install the apk on any android device without even tinkering at all.

Oh btw they just last week shifted the Mobile hq from lund to tokyo, so I'm guessing the software will get better now. Previously hardware and software was done in different locations i.e lund and Tokyo :/

You mentioned the problem.... Phone is not stock + apps, it is still modified, so updates are slow, and always relies on Sony bringing them out. They should put stock, and pre-install sony apps on the phone. I would buy sony phones then.

Laurence

I think the comments on the Xperia Z were way too harsh. From what I can tell, this looks like an excellent phone that addresses many of the things that annoy me about the current range of high-end Android phones from Samsung and HTC. Namely:

1. It's water-resistant. This is a huge weakness that afflicts all other smartphones. We're all walking around with these $600+ portable computers that promptly die if you get even a small quantity of water on them. (I've heard stories about people who took their phones in for repair, and were told that they had suffered water damage from something as insubstantial as sweaty hands.) It's crazy. It's crazy. And it's well overdue that somebody tried to fix this. (There have been water-resistant phones in the past like the Moto Defy, but it's never been a feature on a high-end flagship before.)

2. On-screen keys. It's nice to finally see somebody doing this other Google/Motorola. Samsung's use of the hardware menu button is particularly annoying to me; one of the most important UI improvements in ICS was getting rid of the hidden menus. (From my experience helping family members with their Android devices, I can say with certainty that this was a source of confusion for a *lot* of people.) And then Samsung brings then back again. Sony is taking the right approach here.

3. Sony is still skinning Android, but the skin seems to be light and is visually consistent with Holo-themed apps. I still like the stock UI, but this looks like a nice, attractive alternative that I could see myself living with.

4. Although it's hard to tell without actually holding the phone, it looks like it's made out of premium materials. Contrast with the use of glossy plastics on Samsung devices, which is a perennial complaint in AP reviews. I also prefer the overall industrial design to any of Samsung's recent designs.

5. In Sony's press materials, there seems to be a strong emphasis on battery life. I have no idea whether the "battery stamina mode" actually works, or whether it's just hype. But a 2330mAh is still decent. It's nice to have another manufacturer other than Motorola emphasising this.

In summary, this looks to me like a thoughtful, well-designed phone that attempts to address many of genuine usability issues with current high-end handsets, rather than just cramming just cramming in new specs for the sake of it (although I admit the 1080p screen falls into the latter category). I've pretty much sworn off ever buying an Android phone that isn't a Nexus, but even so I find the Xperia Z pretty tempting.

didibus

I agree completely, the only thing that holds me back from buying a sony phone, is the skin, and to that extent, I agree with the author, if you are going to put a skin on it, the skin must innovate. Samsung's skin at least adds features that are actually interesting. If sony can't compete on skin, then they should go stock, once they will either go stock, or compete on skin, is when I will buy Sony phones.

CoreDuo08

Polaroid and RCA are brands that any random Chinese manufacturer can rent out for cheap these days, as is the case for many old American electronics brands.

Jeremee

Why the 6.1" Huawei Ascend Mate not in the list of "Best"?
I'm keen to walk with a limp with that pimp phone in my pocket!

hot_spare

Still no idea what's so exciting about Shield. It's just another console running Android. nvidia is a perfect example of fragmentation in Android. It's even more cynical than users running older version of Android. Why should I need to have a particular SoC while running the same OS to play a certain game? This is bad, and should never be encouraged.

If this trend continues, tomorrow Samsung will do something in their Exynos similarly and create a huge problem for others.

primalxconvoy

Although I agree that the shield as is, is doomed to fail, there needs to be some strong voices making noises to kick start real Android/mobile gaming. Having phones that not only run basic Android games for casual players, while allowing real gamers to play games with hardware controls is the future. Either all phones will run these games, or several services running unified standards will emerge. Android phones might offer "ouya" and "tegra" stores/apps, creating new markets and new divisions between fans. Perhaps Nintendo will become an apple only store, with playstation becoming either Sony phone only, or available to all Android phones.

Then, just as with Netflix and hulu, it won't be a question of what hardware you use, but rather which service you subscribe to.

Cherokee4Life

i hope that doesn't happen...

primalxconvoy

Hope what doesn't happen?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001482286220 Karan Ocs

Xperia Z And Razor EDGE was the best gadgets at CES 2013 i don't know how u call Xperia Z a MEH phone !

best phone out there u probably one of those cheap plastic samsung fans!

hey David , we know that you didn't like CES this year and you may not come back in 2014 (but i'm sure you will ) and you're desperate now , but come on !!!! you're taking this way too far giving all negative feedback about Xperia Z

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1745689461 Hal Motley

I think he is justified in his words. Waterproofing a phone isn't that much of a huge deal maker for me.

Afif

Yes Hal and it isn't for me too . but that doesn't make Xperia Z a boring phone or "nothing different " in it ... i think it has one of the most amazing designs with very powerful hardware , and it's a BIG step forward for Sony ..... maybe the numbers in 2013 will tell the real story,,, whether it's gonna be a successful phone or not ... and i have a great feeling that it's gonna be....

Dale Griggs

You have little rubber caps to keep out the water. So, every time you want do charge it or plug in your head set, you have to remove the cap and then replace it when you are through. I have never got my phone wet so this feature is just a pain in the a$$.
As for its design, have you seen the Oppo Fine 5? That is first class design.

http://twitter.com/Telanis_ Telanis

That's why the ZL exists. You can't lump them together and call both shitty over something that only applies to one of them.

Zacharylinde1996

I agree with David's assessment. This year's CES was boring, and to put it frankly, was simply not inventive and did not expand the horizons of technology like previous years.

In regards to the Z and ZL, I believe their greatest downfall is their lack of invention. They suffer from the same problem as the iPhone- they don't expand on mobile technology and ideas, they simply regurgitate it. True, waterproofing is the exception, though everyone has the right to be entitled to their own opinion. I remember having port covers on my dumb phones, and they were always an agitation to me. Water-proofing will not be useful to the majority of the mobile world, save the women (and men) who drop their phones in the toilet.

What I like the most about this year's CES was the YOTA phone and project shield because they expand mobile technology with features that I actually give a crap about. As more and more people develop with android games, that will mean more titles that are accessible to me. And the YOTA phone is just plain cool.

primalxconvoy

Yota is interesting to me too. I heard a rumour about phone cases that will incorporate e-ink as well.

I also agree with your opinion on shield.

Technology companies should be offering more things to expand the capabilities of mobile, adding new features that create value.

"Covergence" is the buzzword here. Converging mobile services with portable and console/tv/pc services and hardware is the future.

Companies should be offering cheap/value for money technology that offers standardised hardware keyboards and gamepads for phones, allowing phones to easily work with tvs, improve app quality, etc.

Waterproofing phones smacks of the straw clutching that Japanese phone manufacturers enlisted while trying to defend their doa featurephones against the mainly non Japanese smartphone invasion of Japan, spearheaded by Apple.

PCSievers

Why are people so quick to defend the Sony Z? It's benchmarks on the pre-release put it basically in line with the Note 2 I bought last year (some better, some worse) according to engadget.

Sure, it is waterproof, but I dont own a boat or go kayaking and if I did I could replicate that waterproofing with an aloksak (I have a few laid around I dont use, as it happens).

It's screen is nice I am sure but its design is very bland and generic with nothing about it making you sit up and take notice. Wake me up next month when HTC announces their next flagship to see what a true next gen phone will be like, which incidentally is the true competition of the Z until Samsung launches the S4, by which point the buyer's remorse will have truly set in for Xperia Z owners.

http://www.facebook.com/dlupescu Dan Lupescu

I feel bad for really really liking the YotaPhone. There are so many uses for that e-ink side, being lower powered and all....

brutalpanther

I agree,I checked every site available that had any news of some groundbreaking anything.I guess if you could make a phone call from the android stove that would be cool(NOT)There was a couple tablets that may be worth checking out.Don't really know until prices and complete specs are revealed.The archos game tablet looks promising.And lets not forget tegra 4.I'm right there with ya on the shield,it gave me a rise in my levi's.Since it appears ps vita is going down the crapper.

defred34

Hey David, here's an idea. If you're having personal issues and feel like venting out your fury by writing stupendous articles on Android Police, stop and go see a psychiatrist or counsellor instead. Really poor stuff from the premier Android news blog in my eyes.

http://www.facebook.com/AqoO.4Ever Kool Shah

David's phone is an HTC One X+. He is an avid writer and a fucktard who doesn't like simple stuff from sony and b1tch about it being not techy lol, and enjoys imparting his fucktarted views on others... He also doesn't usually write such fucktarded reviews.....

BrainOfSweden

The Polaroid camera is the perfect hipster-cam. An awesome retro camera that can upload low-quality pics of food to instagram, can it get any better?

Dale Griggs

I was going to arrange to attend next years CES. After following this years, looking for a reason to go, I wouldn't go if it were in Phoenix, where I live. The only products that were interesting were the three processors. I wanted to see the new Oppo find 5 but they were not even interested. Why would anyone fight those crowds to see a thousand new cases for the Iphone?

http://www.facebook.com/AqoO.4Ever Kool Shah

David's phone is an HTC One X+. He is an avid fucktard, who enjoys imparting a fucktard opinion of Sony Z and ZL just because he doesn't find it techy and simply doesn't like simple things from sony. . He also doesn't usually write such boring fucktard onions of devices. and he enjoys removing opinions of others who do not like his opinions. but he want his opinion to be heard.

Sootie

What a well written response in such excellent polite english.

I thought the sony phone looked pretty interesting too and a waterproof phone is a great idea but thats not the way to have a reasoned debate about it

primalxconvoy

I agree with the article. Even now, with some websites STILL failing to offer mobile sites, sites and online services unable to seperate language from geographical location, no dedicated mobile phone hardware gaming controls in most phones, little or no cheap and easy ways for customers to access the mobile content on their tvs, etc; then I say that these are some of the things customers like me really want and I suspect they are things people will use when given the opportunity.